Path resources · Export & Trade

Export & Trade

Prepare a product to cross borders and reach real buyers.

Export succeeds on documentation, consistency, and buyer trust. Use the export plan template to price a shipment honestly, the market guide to choose a corridor, and the compliance checklist to avoid the mistakes that stop goods at a port.

Export Business Plan Template

This template forces the numbers buyers ask for first: supply capacity, landed cost, and documentation. Fill it in per product and per destination market.

1. Product Definition

  • Exact product, grade, variety, and packaging format.
  • Your best guess at the HS classification, and who confirmed it.
  • Shelf life, storage conditions, and handling requirements.

2. Supply Capacity

  • Volume you can supply per month and per season, with proof.
  • Sources: own production, cooperative, or aggregated suppliers.
  • What happens to quality and price if a buyer doubles the order?

3. Target Market & Buyer

  • One destination country, and the buyer type: importer, distributor, processor, retailer.
  • Import duty, quota, and standards that apply to your product there.
  • Who already sells this product into that market, and at what price?

4. Landed Cost Build-Up

  • Ex-works cost per unit, packaging, inland transport, handling, inspection.
  • Freight, insurance, duty, clearance, and destination handling.
  • Final landed cost per unit and your margin at the buyer's target price.

5. Trade Terms

  • Incoterm you are quoting (EXW, FOB, CIF, DAP) and why.
  • Payment terms: advance, letter of credit, documentary collection, open account.
  • Currency of the contract and how you handle exchange movement.

6. Documentation Pack

  • Commercial invoice, packing list, certificate of origin, transport document.
  • Product-specific certificates: phytosanitary, health, quality, testing.
  • Who prepares each document, and how long each one takes.

7. Logistics Plan

  • Route, mode, port of loading and discharge, and transit time.
  • Freight forwarder and customs broker, with references.
  • Cold chain or special handling arrangements, if needed.

8. Risk & Compliance

  • Buyer credit risk and how you reduce it.
  • Labour, environmental, and sourcing standards, and how they are verified.
  • Sanctions, restricted-party, and prohibited-goods screening.

9. First Shipment Plan

  • Trial order size, target date, and the exact steps to get there.
  • What you will measure to decide whether to scale.

Africawe provides opportunity discovery and decision-support tools. Investments require independent due diligence and, where applicable, appropriately licensed financial partners.

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